Questions for: John McDonough

The Blackhawks President Discusses His Plan to Make His Team Relevant in Chicago Again

By

Bryan Gruley

Updated Oct. 8, 2008 2:52 p.m. ET

John McDonough left the Chicago Cubs last year to become president of the Chicago Blackhawks, moving from the team with the longest championship drought in baseball to one with the longest championship drought in the National Hockey League.

The Blackhawks haven't won a Stanley Cup since 1961 &mdash; not even close to the Cubs' 100-year stretch of futility. Mr. McDonough won't predict when the Hawks will again claim the NHL's top trophy. But long-suffering Hawk fans are betting on their team returning to relevance. Season-ticket sales have soared to about 14,000, from 3,400 a year ago. Monday's home opener is sold out.

Not bad for a team that has missed the Stanley Cup playoffs nine of 10 seasons. Fans were so disgusted that, after owner Bill Wirtz died last year, some booed during a moment of silence for him at a game. Under his son and new chairman Rocky Wirtz, all Hawks games will be televised. The team has upgraded facilities and repaired relations with estranged ex-stars Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita and Tony Esposito. In the offseason, the Hawks spent tens of millions signing goalie Cristobal Huet and defenseman Brian Campbell. And they secured the Winter Classic, a New Year's Day game to be played on national television on an outdoor rink at the Cubs' home, Wrigley Field.

Mr. Wirtz also hired the 55-year-old Mr. McDonough. In 24 years with the Cubs, the Chicago native gained a reputation as a clever marketer who could fill seats regardless of the team's record. As the NHL season gets underway, Mr. McDonough discussed his plan to get the Blackhawks back on top. Excerpts:

The Wall Street Journal: What did you learn from your experience with the Cubs that you brought to the Blackhawks?

Mr. McDonough: Never to accept conformity, never to be satisfied with what preceded you, to be inventive, to be creative, to do things differently.

WSJ: For instance?

Mr. McDonough: I would always go with the philosophy that you had to assume the team was going to go 0-and-162. But there was a romance and a love affair with that franchise the likes I've never seen before.

WSJ: When Rocky Wirtz was wooing you, you had a coffee that became lunch and almost dinner. What did you want to hear?

Mr. McDonough: The first thing I wanted was something to eat, because I didn't anticipate this was really going to be an interview.

He would say things [like] winning is of paramount importance, nobody is sacred, we're going to have the resources to win, we want to bring the Blackhawks back to prominence. It was about four or five days of tears and gnashing of teeth. I think I made a great decision.

WSJ: Did you set any conditions, such as, "I want to see the games on television?"

Mr. McDonough: Without that, in my opinion, we had no chance. I gave him a list of things I thought were critical. There had to be structure. There had to be an ambitious approach.

I walked in on day one and there was no receptionist. Then I said to somebody, I want to see the director of human resources. We don't have a director of human resources. People say, "Did you start from scratch?" Whatever it is before scratch, that's where we started.

WSJ: Yet now you talk about building one of the best front offices in sports.

Mr. McDonough: The Blackhawks all of a sudden have been the resume Olympics. There's a certain type of person I look for: somebody bright, somebody willing to achieve, somebody not concerned about hours. People hearken back to the 16,666 [seats at the former Chicago Stadium] that I fondly remember as a child, being one of the fans standing in the second balcony. This building [the United Center] is 5,000 seats larger. We have a tough task.

WSJ: After you arrived, you described Hawks fans as "furious." What was wrong?

Mr. McDonough: We were at odds with our fans. We were at odds with our former players. We were at odds with former broadcasters.

Coming from the Cubs, one thing that we took great pride in is our relationship with [former players] Ernie Banks and Billy Williams and Ryne Sandberg and Ron Santo and Fergie Jenkins. It was important to have our fans see that we had a good relationship with the great players that played a huge part of their youth.

Bringing Bobby Hull back was job number one for me. It was a very difficult two-hour discussion I had with Bobby. It was direct. At some point it was profane. I think it was emotional. He had to say these things, I had to hear them. Because it was a 37-year estrangement. [Later], he said, "I want to come back." Stan and Tony came back later.

ENLARGE

Blackhawks Jonathan Toews, left, and Patrick Kane pose at Wrigley Field's home plate to promote the Winter Classic, which they will play there Jan. 1 against Detroit.
NHLI via Getty Images

WSJ: You had attendance of 18,000-plus for a preseason game. How did you do that?

Mr. McDonough: I saw too many empty seats. I'm not used to empty seats and I don't like it. I don't want us to get comfortable that we had 18,000 tickets sold but most didn't show up. I think virtually every game this year we'll be playing in front of a full house. They don't call this the Madhouse on Madison for nothing.

WSJ: A Cubs game for a family of four can be cheaper than a Hawks game. How do you make hockey affordable?

Mr. McDonough: I think our ticket prices now rank 18th in the league. We need to be as creative as we possibly can and we need to dig a little deeper to make sure that it is affordable. You take a look at the economy and you have to adjust.

WSJ: Are you making ticket price adjustments?

Mr. McDonough: No, ticket prices for the year are locked in. One of the things we have to look at is the pricing on everything: concessions, parking, making this affordable for everybody. Every team in sports is taking a long look.

The Daily Fix takes a spin around the NHL to examine the prospects of all 30 teams in its 2009-09 preview.

Mr. McDonough: I really don't want to talk about other elite franchises. At the end of last season, when we missed the playoffs by three points, we gathered the hockey team and the front office together over a luncheon. The message I sent was, we are no longer going to have a hockey operation and a business operation. There is going to be one Chicago Blackhawks. There is going to be a certain type of player that is going to play.

WSJ: Meaning?

Mr. McDonough: They are going to be congenial. They are going to understand the big picture. We're not the premier sport in the United States or in Chicago. But if we sign integrity guys and players that understand the media and the importance of developing a relationship with the community, we're going to get this job done.

WSJ: Plenty of teams wanted to host the 2009 Winter Classic. How'd you land it for Wrigley Field?

Mr. McDonough: About two weeks after [last season's] outdoor classic, I had a pre-scheduled appointment with [NHL Commissioner] Gary Bettman. I tried to artfully weave in the fact that it was with great interest I saw the outdoor classic and wouldn't it be great for that game to be in Chicago.

I started going into an area that was very sentimental, talking about the bleachers and the rooftops and possibly painting ivy on the boards. I probably called him three or four times after that, until at one point he said to me, "John, you've made your point."

WSJ: How difficult a ticket will that be to find?

Mr. McDonough: I believe that this will be one of the toughest, if not the toughest, regular-season ticket to get in Chicago sports history. But more importantly, I want to see the Blackhawks win that outdoor game.

WSJ: Your new slogan is "One Goal." That goal is to win the Stanley Cup?

Mr. McDonough: It's not a pronouncement, it's not a prediction. But it should be our goal. Any front office employee that walks in our building every day or any players that walk into this locker room, if ultimately that is not our goal, they shouldn't be Blackhawks.

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